Columbus Cup

Russell Couts, New Zealand: Finished second in the 1989 Columbus Cup, won by Peter Gilmour of Australia. Has been very successful in Olympic class boats, one-tonners and 12-meter class. Gold medalist in Finn class in 1984 Olympics. World youth champion in 1981. As a match racer, he won the Liberty Cup in 1989 and the Kouros Cup this year.Makoto Namba, Japan: Finished fourth in the 1989 Columbus Cup. Captain of the Nippon Challenge America's Cup team and a top skipper in 470s, J/24s and International Offshore Rule yachts in Japan.

During the last half of a decade, the Columbus Cup sailing regatta held at the Inner Harbor each fall has changed its format several times.Initially it was a match-racing championship sailed in 44-foot sloops, the largest boats used in such championships outside the America's Cup.Last year, the event went to a team-racing format, with venues split between Annapolis and Baltimore, in 31-foot sloops.This year, on Oct. 8 and 9, the Columbus Cup will continue with team racing, but the boats have been downsized to 15-foot Vanguards.

The Cadillac Columbus Cup changed tacks yesterday, dropping its fleet-racing program and opening a round-robin series of match races a day earlier than planned.Susan Taylor, executive director of the Columbus Cup, said the change in format was brought up at a morning meetings of skippers and heartily endorsed."These people all came here to match race," Taylor said. "Another day of fleet racing just didn't seem to fit the bill."Chris Law of Britain won all three races he and his crew sailed yesterday and stands alone in first place entering today's schedule.

In the best-of-five final series of the Columbus Cup team racing regatta sailed on Baltimore Harbor yesterday, the PACT '95 team swept Team Chesapeake, 3-0.In team racing, such as that used in the Columbus Cup, a score of 10 or fewer points is a guaranteed victory and a score of 6 is a shutout.PACT '95 finished its first two races with 9 and 6 points and won the third with 6.The PACT '95 team of skippers Ken Read, John Kostecki and Kevin Mahaney did not lose a race during the three days of racing in which all contestants sailed Beneteau 31 sloops.

The Cadillac Columbus Cup match racing regatta will return to Baltimore from Oct. 6-12 with a few new wrinkles this year.Previous Columbus Cups, a series of one-on-one sailboat races, have been held off the mouth of the Patapsco River, but this year race organizers have decided to bring the courses inside the Key Bridge. The courses themselves also will be changed to feature shorter legs, more laps, more frequent sail changes and an increased emphasis on tactics and crew work.At least one finish line will be set in the Inner Harbor.

J.J. Isler of San Diego, who won the all-women's Santa Maria Cup here in May, has qualified as a skipper in the Cadillac Columbus Cup match racing series that will be sailed here this fall.Isler will be the first female skipper in this competition.Other skippers scheduled to compete are:John Kostecki, Team USA. Kostecki is an Olympic silver medalist and a world champion in the J/24 class.Jim Brady, Team Chesapeake. Brady is the 1990 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and a world champion in the J/24 class.

In the past two years, the Cadillac Columbus Cup has set sail for a week each October from the Finger Piers in the Inner Harbor to race in the Chesapeake Bay with limited spectator fleets and moderate fanfare.This year, race organizers believe, changes of venue and racing format will produce a better Columbus Cup for the competitors, the spectators and the sponsors of the event."Our purpose in having this event has been from the beginning to promote the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland," said Susan Taylor, executive director of the regatta.

The eight boats in the Cadillac Columbus Cup opened fleet racing yesterday afternoon in conditions that left some of the best sailors in the world wondering just exactly when things went wrong -- or for that matter, when things began to go right.The cause of the confusion, said Chris Law of England, was extreme wind shifts that developed over the course as two breezes fought each other, forcing the skippers to guess which side of the course would be favored.Buddy Melges of Wisconsin, whose sailing resume reads like a world atlas, won the first of two races yesterday in the weeklong competition that includes eight teams from the United States, Spain, France, England and Canada.

The Cadillac Columbus Cup will be sailed on Baltimore Harbor off Fort McHenry this week with a new cast of contestants and a slew of new sponsors, indicating this match-racing regatta is being noticed in international sailing circles.In its first three years, the Columbus Cup was sailed in J/44s on loan from private owners, and each boat had its idiosyncrasies. Some were fast, others were faster and still others were dreadfully slow -- no matter which skipper sailed them.This year the regatta will be sailed in Beneteau First 310s supplied by their French builder.

A Peter Baker outdoors column, originally published last fall, mistakenly appeared again in yesterday's editions of The Sunday Sun. The Cadillac Columbus Cup regatta mentioned in the column will be sailed the week of Oct. 10, 1993, at the Inner Harbor.* The Sun regrets the error.The Cadillac Columbus Cup will be sailed on Baltimore Harbor off Fort McHenry this week with a new cast of contestants and a slew of new sponsors that indicate this match-racing regatta is being noticed in international sailing circles.

Team Nippon defeated the Santa Maria Cup Challenge, 2-0, yesterday in the best-of-three series to determine third place in the Columbus Cup team racing regatta sailed off Fort McHenry.Team Chesapeake and the PACT '95 team will sail in a best-of-five series to determine the Cup champion starting at 11 a.m. today off Fort McHenry.Earlier in the week, PACT '95 was 6-0 in the round-robin portion of the regatta sailed in Annapolis. Team Chesapeake was 4-2, with both losses coming against PACT '95.Spectators should be able to view today's races from Fort McHenry.

PACT '95, which on Tuesday won all three of its races, swept its opponents again yesterday in the Columbus Cup team racing regatta sailed on the Severn River and in the process forced a change of format for the balance of the competition.Originally scheduled as a third round-robin series among four teams of three boats each and the finals, the racing in Baltimore tomorrow now will include a race-off between the Santa Maria Cup team and Team Nippon for third place and the start of a final series between PACT '95 and Team Chesapeake.

The Columbus Cup regatta got under way in Annapolis yesterday with six races in breezy conditions that made for tense racing among teams representing Japan, PACT '95, the Santa Maria Cup and the Chesapeake Bay.The Columbus Cup, which in previous years has been a match-race competition held on the Inner Harbor or the Patapsco River, has been split between Annapolis and Baltimore this year and changed to a team-racing format.PACT '95, a team representing an America's Cup defense syndicate, came out of the first round-robin undefeated but not without some anxious moments.

Imagine, if you will, a game between two teams of three in which the first member of either team to score by reaching a goal wins. The image is fairly easy to picture if the game is two-hand touch football or playground hoops.Now take those six players and make them sailboats initiating play from a common starting line and maneuvering toward a common goal, with each boat's finishing position counting toward a team score.The first image that comes to mind is confusion -- or maybe 10-year-olds turned loose in bumper cars or adults driving in a demolition derby.

"Baltimore on the Bay," a celebration of the city's waterfront communities, maritime heritage and seafood tradition, will run through Oct. 24. The Baltimore Office of Promotion and members of the local business community sponsor the events, which include:* The 27th annual Fell's Point Fun Festival. This celebration of the famous seaport will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and tomorrow and is presented by the Fells Point Preservation Society. The festival will feature food, crafts, live music, street performers and a children's area.

A Peter Baker outdoors column, originally published last fall, mistakenly appeared again in yesterday's editions of The Sunday Sun. The Cadillac Columbus Cup regatta mentioned in the column will be sailed the week of Oct. 10, 1993, at the Inner Harbor.* The Sun regrets the error.The Cadillac Columbus Cup will be sailed on Baltimore Harbor off Fort McHenry this week with a new cast of contestants and a slew of new sponsors that indicate this match-racing regatta is being noticed in international sailing circles.

Team Nippon defeated the Santa Maria Cup Challenge, 2-0, yesterday in the best-of-three series to determine third place in the Columbus Cup team racing regatta sailed off Fort McHenry.Team Chesapeake and the PACT '95 team will sail in a best-of-five series to determine the Cup champion starting at 11 a.m. today off Fort McHenry.Earlier in the week, PACT '95 was 6-0 in the round-robin portion of the regatta sailed in Annapolis. Team Chesapeake was 4-2, with both losses coming against PACT '95.Spectators should be able to view today's races from Fort McHenry.

Texan John Kolius defeated the Nippon America's Cup Challenge's Robert Fry swept the best-of-three final round of the 1992 Cadillac Columbus Cup regatta yesterday.In the consolation petit final round, France's Bertrand Pace also topped rival Brad Butterworth of New Zealand in the first two contests of the day, eliminating the need for a third-flight tiebreaker.Winds were light and variable, and racing in the Patapsco River was postponed until about 2 p.m., when accompanied by a light southerly breeze the competitors began a four-legged windward-leeward race.

With some of the most exciting racing in this year's Cadillac Columbus Cup Regatta, five additional flights in the double round-robin preliminary series were completed yesterday on courses on the Patapsco.Annapolitan Gary Jobson, known to sailors as ESPN's America's Cup commentator since 1987, and as tactician on Ted Turner's winning America's Cup campaign, handed series leader Bertrand Pace of France his first loss of the series in flight 8, with America's Cup veteran and world-champion sailor John Kolius going on to add a second loss to Pace's record in the next round.